Day: August 19, 2010

I’ve just written this short article on writing for one of crime author, Pauline Rowson’s, blogs (advice for writers). Perhaps you’ll find it helpful, also, if you’ve written a book that has received nothing but rejections. Check it out below:

Del Boy of Only Fools and Horses fame, always said: ‘By this time next year, we’ll be millionaires’. Perhaps that’s your belief, too – if only you could get someone to read your book. Maybe it’ll happen, too. After all, you’ve done all the usual things. You’ve penned the Letters to the Editor, subscribed to writers’ magazines, joned the local Writers’ Circle and received your first rejection letter. Or maybe more than one…

Perhaps it’s time to consider having your work professionally criticized?

Yes, I know it’s expensive. I know the critique might be wounding to your ego, but so are all those rejections. It could well be the step forward you need. I doubt if I would have got published but for the advice I received after finishing Dead Before Morning, the first novel in what went on to become a series (Rafferty & Llewellyn). I’m currently fourteen books into the series, having just finished Deadly Reunion. It’s possible I would still be that forlorn and struggling wannabe without their help.

Unfortunately, the criticism service I used seems to have vanished off the radar, but if you check the Links Page on my website (www.geraldineevans.com), you’ll find the names of two reputable firms. And if you buy the latest writers’ bibles (Writers’ Handbook and Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook), you’ll find a lot more.

Yes, I know, you can get a critique from your friends at your writing circle, but I don’t think that’s the most suitable area for a book critique. Think about it. It could take a year (or two) for you to read out the entire book and by the time the last monthly critique meeting comes by, the other members will have forgotten most of the first half of it.

So, if you’re frustrated and yearn to have your book read in pretty quick fashion by someone in the know, think about having that professional critique. As Del Boy would say: ‘You know it makes sense’.